Black and White Classic Cheesecake

It's Carrie's birthday and I wanted to make a cake for her. I went to Cheesecake Factory with my manager while I was in Alabama and we tried their new cheesecake, which is a combination of their chocolate cake and their original cheesecake. It was soooooo good! Yummy! I wanted to try to make it for Carrie, but I've never made an American Cheesecake before and I was worried that I would destroy the cake. So I decided to start with the basics.

The crust is made from butter and graham cracker crumbs. The cheesecake is a combo of 2 layers of vanilla cheesecake with a layer of chocolate cheesecake in the middle. Thus the black and white name. I have decorated it with some creme legere and fresh strawberries. Pardon the messi decorations as I did it in the morning before work and I only had 15 minutes.

This is a picture of the cake after it was butchered.


I'm very happy that Carrie liked it and that the rest of my coworkers actually tried the cake. This is the first time that I brought a cake to work and everybody took a bite and tried. Their feedback was positive on the cake. :) I'm really really glad.

The recipe is adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking from My Home to Yours.

For the crust:

1-3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs

3 tbs sugar

Pinch of salt

4 tbs unsalted butter, melted

For the cheesecake:

2 lbs cream cheese, at room temperature

1-1/2 cups sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla extract

4 eggs, at room temperature

1-1/3 cups sour cream or heavy cream or a combination of the 2

4 oz bittersweet chocolate chips

To make the crust:

Butter a 9" springform pan and wrap the bottom of the pan with a double layer of foil. Stir in the crumbs, sugar, and salt together in a medium bowl. Pour over the melted butter and stir until the dry ingredients are uniformly moist. Turn the ingredients to the springform pan and press down on the bottom and sides of the pan. Put the springform pan in the freezer while heating up the oven to 350F. Once the temperature is reached, bake the crust for 10 minutes and set aside to cool.

To make the cheesecake:

Beat the cream cheese at medium speed until soft and creamy, for about 4 minutes. Add sugar and salt and continue to beat for another 4 minutes until the cream cheese is light. Beat in the vanilla. Then add in the eggs, one at a time beating well after each addition (about 1 full minute). Turn the mixer to low speed and add the sour cream and/or heavy cream. Set aside.

Melt the chocolate on microwave for 2 minutes at 50% power, taking 30 seconds interval to mix the chocolate (be careful not to scorch the chocolate). Pour about 1/3 of the cheesecake batter into another bowl and gently fold in the melted chocolate in.

Pour half of the remaining plain cheesecake batter into the prepared springform pan. Smooth the layer using an offset spatula and then pour in the chocolate cheesecake batter. Smooth the top using an offset spatula. To finish, pour the remaining plain cheesecake batter on top and smooth it.

Bake the cheesecake in a water bath at 325F for 1-1/2 hour (the top should be browned or even slightly cracked). Turn off the oven and open the door slightly ajar and let the cheesecake there for another hour. Then, carefully take the springform pan out of the water bath. Let the cheesecake come to room temperature on a cooling rack. Once the cake is cooled, cover the top with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours (overnight is better). Unmold from the spingform pan and serve.

Itadakimas!